Schumer to Trump: Redirect $5B in Border Wall Money to Gun Initiatives

Plus, how low are US taxes?

Schumer Wants Trump to Shift Border Wall Money to Fight Gun Violence

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer plans on formally asking President Trump to withdraw a request for $5 billion in border wall funding and instead redirect the money toward addressing “gun violence and violent white supremacist extremism,” according to reports.

“Republicans and this administration need to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to addressing gun violence and stopping the rise of domestic terrorism, especially stemming from white supremacy,” Schumer said in a statement to Politico, which first reported the request. He added that Democrats are prepared to work with Trump and Republicans to respond to the FBI’s call for additional resources to combat domestic terrorism.

Congress is on its summer recess until after Labor Day, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has resisted Democratic calls to have lawmakers return early. McConnell has said that once Congress is back in session, legislation to expand background checks of prospective gun buyers and so-called red flag laws to allow firearms to be confiscated from people believed to pose a threat would be “front and center.”

The bottom line: Trump’s about as likely to go for this as he is to endorse Joe Biden for president, but Schumer’s move is an attempt to keep pressure on Republicans on the gun issue in the wake of the mass shootings that killed 31 people in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.

Quote of the Day

“There is no barrier for U.S. Treasury yields going below zero. Zero has no meaning, beside being a certain level.”

– Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. Greenspan is just the latest market watcher to suggest that Treasury yields could drop into negative territory.



As CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald explained Tuesday: “With global central banks engaging in unprecedented monetary easing, a record $15 trillion of government bonds worldwide now trade at negative yields. As uncertainty reigns, investors are looking for a safe haven for their money, even if it means getting back less than they gave.” For more on what’s driving U.S. Treasury rates lower, see this piece from Quartz.

Number of the Day: 1.2 Million

New data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show that 1.2 million people who obtained health insurance on the federal marketplaces but did not qualify for subsidies dropped their coverage between 2017 and 2018. At the same time, an additional 300,000 people who qualified for subsidies signed up.

While noting that the data show that “the ACA continues not to collapse,” Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation said that the rapidly rising cost of coverage is hurting people who earn too much to receive Obamacare subsidies: “As premiums have risen recently, middle-class people have taken it on the chin.”

Some other details from the report:

  • Between 2016 and 2018, unsubsidized enrollment fell by 2.5 million nationally.
  • The decline in unsubsidized enrollment varied by state, ranging from Rhode Island’s 0.4% drop to Iowa’s 91% decline.
  • Six states saw unsubsidized enrollment fall by more than 70% over the two years: Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
  • Average enrollment in the entire individual market fell by 7% between 2017 and 2018. 
  • Overall, premiums rose 26% between 2017 and 2018.

US Taxes Lower Than in Most Developed Countries

The Tax Policy Center on Monday released a chart that reminds us once again that taxes are lower in the U.S. than in most developed nations — and that was true even before the Republican tax cuts took effect in 2018.

Drawing on data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has 36 relatively high-income member nations, TPC said that total tax revenues in the U.S. — including all levels of government — in 2017 came to about 27% of gross domestic product, nearly 10 points lower than the OECD average of 36%. The U.S. ranks 31st on the measure among the 36 OECD nations.

The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein suggested that the U.S. could raise considerably more federal revenue if its fiscal policies were more closely aligned with its developed-nation peers: “Another way of thinking about this is the US could raise an additional $18 trillion/decade if it had average levels of taxation of an advanced economy,” Stein tweeted. “And that’s just the average, not Norway/Sweden.”

Tax policies like those in the European Union would raise even more, about $26 trillion over 10 years, said Bobby Kogan, a Democratic staffer for the Senate Budget Committee, while claiming the title of “highest taxed nation in the world” — currently held by France — would generate about $50 trillion more.

Brian Riedl of the conservative Manhattan Institute cited an important reason for the stark difference between the U.S. and many other high-income nations, saying, “The difference is that Europe taxes the hell out of the middle class, and the U.S. doesn't.”

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